Barneys New York is continuing its move into the future.
The Barneys New York flagship on Madison Avenue has created, for SS16, an ode to NYC underground label, Hood By Air. While the retailer is no stranger to major spectacle in the VM department (live ice carving Holiday Windows featuring Moncler Gamme Bleu and Thom Browne for example), the decision to celebrate HBA this season marks a fashion forward move that heralds the diverse and rapidly growing contemporary menswear scene of the city. Rather than focussing on the more popularly window-worthy luxury brands, Barneys, who were the first department store to stock the HBA brand, has focussed on the streetwear giants with a full visual recreation of their SS16 shows and the results are beyond awesome. Every detail from lighting to location to styling has been reimagined with silicone casts of the models by Yuji Yoshimoto’s Studio UG. Even the specific time of day has been noted with the use of beaming fluorescent bulbs. The collection hasn’t been commercialised or re-styled for the Barneys audience but rendered identical from each inked detail of the model to Dolly Cohen’s grills. The incredible displays will be present through till May.
